Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: My paper this morning represents an early inquiry into what will be a broad-ranging book-length study of the “elements of American nationalism” that will explore various components of U. S. nationalism and how they fit into the still larger pattern of American and world nationalisms. One of the central problems of U. S. nationalism, one it shares with other immigrant nations and one therefore becoming more global in its manifestation, is its character as a multi-ethnic nation. Though my remarks this morning may have little direct bearing on the works of John Higham and Samuel Huntington, it is very much about the subject these two scholars focused on: the role of ethnicity in American society.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There is a small but growing literature that focuses on the various ethno-political identities and cultures within Macedonia. For the most part, these works occupy one of four general categories: the sharp focus on western models and stereotypes (e.g. primordial divisions, nationalism, ‘Balkanization’); generalized deductive research; attempts at retrospective creation or justification of identity; and attempts to move beyond earlier assumptions. This research outlines the models, methods, and stereotypes that have been applied to Macedonia’s politics and identities to date and then adds to the last category by presenting a cognitive network approach to better understanding the political dynamics of this post-Communist society.
Contemporary scholars and practitioners from both in- and outside of the region frequently rely on the assumption that ethnicity is the major driving issue in Macedonia’s political behavior. While, superficially, this appears to be a difficult concept to dismiss, newer research into Balkan politics is beginning to move beyond the oftentimes simplistic realm of ethnic cleavages and is beginning to consider more of the actual richness and complexity that characterizes the region. The fundamental task of this research was to probe for the cognitive frameworks employed by Macedonia’s individual and collective political identities. In so doing, popular assumptions were set aside wherever possible in order to take a fresh look at the various identities developing in this relatively new republic.
Rather than begin to define the constructs and comparisons in use from the state or community level and extrapolate downward, this research instead begins at the individual level in order to elicit the components of the comparison structures that comprise individual actors’ frameworks and then extrapolate upward, to the society level. The repertory grid method (Kelly 1955) provides respondents with an opportunity make evaluations on their own terms, using their own comparative constructs, and differentiating quantitatively between the elements they are evaluating. Rather than ask a respondent to rate decision elements in terms that are meaningful to the researcher’s theoretical framework, the respondent is instead asked to provide his or her own theoretical framework and use that to differentiate between the events or personalities in question. Resulting frameworks can then be employed to evaluate how individuals in a group actually differ or agree in their perceptions of the same stimuli. Groups can be delineated into clusters based on perceptual similarities.
This approach was verified with a nationwide survey based on the original interviews. Resulting frameworks were analyzed and used to test current models of identity that are commonly employed by scholars and practitioners from both in- and outside of the region. Such models are characterized by their reliance on ethnicity to explain political behavior and societal divisions there. What resulted was a demonstration of the shortcomings inherent in the ethnic divisions model and the potential for this type of inquiry in becoming a valuable aid to our understanding how identity and perception relate to macro-level behavior in Macedonia and elsewhere.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This project seeks to address several debates by examining the historical evolution of ethnic conflict in Montréal, Canada from 1941 to 2004. First, the project will examine how the development of globalization following the Bretton Woods Agreements (1944) has impacted urban ethnic and cultural diversity. Second, the project seeks to understand how the state (federal-level governmental institutions and mechanisms) functions to maintain the nation-state in the face of the cultural, political, and economic challenges posed by globalization processes. Finally, the project will analyze any changes in traditional ethno-cultural conflict due to the diversification of urban areas; specifically, changes in the persisting conflict between Anglo and Francophone groups in Montréal. The proposed project seeks to augment theoretical knowledge of 1) how states function in relation to globalization processes, including how they both encourage and inhibit neoliberal economic markets; 2) how urban areas are ethnically and culturally diversified by institutionalized globalization; 3) how persisting ethno-cultural conflicts are affected and altered by increasing ethnic diversity as well as economic pressures of neoliberal globalization processes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: March of the Living (MOL) is an educational program that brings Jewish high school students from around the world to the Holocaust sites of Poland and then to the tourist sites of Israel. By addressing the complexities of diasporic identity, I explore how those involved in the organization of MOL – a variety of overlapping political and social institutions in the Jewish diaspora as well as in Israel – use memory-centred strategies in order to shape a particular version of Jewish diasporic identity in the present time. My research asks /when/ and /how /do social actors reiterate the past, highlighting the contentious relationship between memory-use and identity-production.
Based on analysis of MOL’s website content, participant observation of chaperone training and interviews with program organizers, I show how the program articulates a series of often competing narratives that reinforce the tensions of multiple belonging and the distinct group boundaries of diasporic identity.

Publication Type: Informal Discussion Roundtable
Abstract: This roundtable discussion will center on the potential for developing an interpretive sociology of loss and memory following extreme ethno-political violence.  Using primarily the case of Bosnia and interviews with seventy refugees about their families and communities both before and after ethnic cleansing, I explore the nature of loss
and the meaning individuals make and transmit about loss across generations and geographical space. I first examine how individuals, families, and their remnants interpret the kind of losses that are the outcome of ethnic cleansing and genocide (e.g., the loss of lives of family and friends, the loss of home, homeland, and identity, the loss of childhood and innocence, the loss of trust in neighbors, teachers and intellectuals, employers, government authorities, etc.).
 
I then explore the patterned ways individuals and communities shift in their thinking about a collective identity or what it means to have lived in Bosnia and how they move on in life after extreme ethno-political violence. I focus in particular on what I term “memory projects” (efforts to keep selective memories and meanings alive). Both in Bosnia and in the Bosnian diaspora, memories of life before the war and during the war are constructed in families and communities and transmitted to new generations distant in time and space from the war years.  I examine the intent of various memory projects and practices as well as the meanings individuals make or derive from
participating in such projects (e.g., commemorations and fundraisings for both refugee communities and for Bosnia, the formation of Bosnian dance troupes, soccer teams,  and other cultural groups in refugee communities, religious institution building, homeland visits to relatives and friends as well as to memorial sites and museums, the creation of Bosnian and ex-Yugoslav groups on Facebook, the participation of Bosnian-American college youth in the Save Darfur campaign, etc.). Finally, I ask how the Bosnian refugee memory
projects might compare to other communities following extreme ethno-political violence (e.g., Jewish youth participating in the Save Darfur campaign, in March of the Living, or in Birthright Israel, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, etc.).  Do patterns exist and  can we make some generalizations about memory, identity, and community life in the aftermath of extreme ethno-political violence?